• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Schiit Loki Mini+ Equalizer Review

Rate this Equalizer:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 61 32.8%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 82 44.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 33 17.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 10 5.4%

  • Total voters
    186

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,375
Likes
234,488
Location
Seattle Area
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Loki Mini+ analog four band equalizer. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $149/$159 (Black/Silver).
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone EQ filter review.jpg

We have the usual Schiit enclosure which is fine for this application. Its stamped steel enclosure helps here by making it heavy enough to not get dragged by its dual set of RCA cables. I was happy to see a tone defeat switch on the right. Sadly there is no power switch in front (you have to reach in the back):
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone EQ filter back panel review.jpg


We have the usual Schiit AC adapter which wastes some power given the heat it generates. Surprisingly, the box itself also got a bit warm. Didn't expect this in a line level type of gear.

I got a kick out of the "no user serviceable parts inside." Does anyone in this day and age expect such parts? I think that vanished back in 1970s if not earlier.

Anyway, the idea is that you tailor the sound using the four controls. Let's see how it performs.

EDIT: Just read that the owner sent me the 500 ma transformer by mistake. The correct one is 1000 ma. I just checked the dashboard and IMD with 1000 ma transformer and performance is identical. The larger transformer may run cooler though.

EDIT 2: I incorrectly labeled all the graphs as "Mani+" rather than "Mini+."

Schiit Loki Mini+ Measurements

Let's start with its frequency response with the tone defeated or not (controls set at detent):
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog frequency response measurement.png

Ideally with controls at center we would still have flat line but we don't. Fortunately the error is small at 0.5 dB. Setting the controls to the right at 3:00 o'clock, gives us an idea of what each one does:
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone EQ effect filter measurement.png


I was surprised at the effect of the middle controls (C2 & C3). They don't do much boosting but actually lower the response more at one end than the other. The extreme ones work as one would imagine more or less.

I set all the controls at max and min which should just set the unit up for flat response and act as extra or negative gain:

Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone EQ effect filter max and min measurement.png


Instead of that, we get quite bit of deviation. This will make it hard to interpret what the unit is doing by looking at the controls.

Let's see distortion and noise by operating the unit first in bypass mode:
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone Bypass measurement.png


Performance is the same as if I bypassed the unit altogether indicating that the switch simply shorts the input to output. So if you don't need it, you can bypass it more or less completely. I say more or less because crosstalk is impacted:
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog crosstalk measurement.png


If you enable tone controls, then you take a significant hit in distortion:
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone enabled measurement.png


Noise performance is very good:
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone SNR measurement.png


The internal buffer seems to start to saturate at just 0.5 volt:
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone IMD Distortion measurement.png


I was disappointed to see fairly steep increase in distortion with frequencies above 500 Hz:
Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone enabled thd+n vs frequency measurement.png


Conclusions
If I were to summarize the performance of Mani+ it would be "it could be worse!" Analog equalizers can be quite noisy which I find unbearable. Here, Mini+ is pretty quiet. On the other hand, it throws away fair bit of performance which is hard to accept in absolute, i.e. regardless of cost. But then again maybe it is OK for the price. While I did not try to operate it, I suspect it would be frustrating to make sense out of what the middle controls do. Lack of memory means adjusting it for different types of music, speakers will be hard.

Anyway, I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other for Schiit Loki Mini+ so won't put it on my recommended list.

----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 
Last edited:

DSS

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2021
Messages
44
Likes
36
This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Loki Mani+ analog four band equalizer. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $149/$159 (Black/Silver).
View attachment 287824
We have the usual Schiit enclosure which is fine for this application. Its stamped steal enclosure helps here by making it heavy enough to not get dragged by its dual set of RCA cables. I was happy to see a tone defeat switch on the right. Sadly there is no power switch in front (you have to reach in the back):
View attachment 287825

We have the usual Schiit AC adapter which wastes some power given the heat it generates. Surprisingly, the box itself also got a bit warm. Didn't expect this in a line level type of gear.

I got a kick out of the "no user serviceable parts inside." Does anyone in this day and age expect such parts? I think that vanished back in 1970s if not earlier.

Anyway, the idea is that you tailor the sound using the four controls. Let's see how it performs.

EDIT: Just read that the owner sent me the 500 ma transformer by mistake. The correct one is 1000 ma. I just checked the dashboard and IMD with 1000 ma transformer and performance is identical. The larger transformer may run cooler though.

Schiit Loki Mani+ Measurements

Let's start with its frequency response with the tone defeated or not (controls set at detent):
View attachment 287826
Ideally with controls at center we would still have flat line but we don't. Fortunately the error is small at 0.5 dB. Setting the controls to the right at 3:00 o'clock, gives us an idea of what each one does:
View attachment 287827

I was surprised at the effect of the middle controls (C2 & C3). They don't do much boosting but actually lower the response more at one end than the other. The extreme ones work as one would imagine more or less.

I set all the controls at max and min which should just set the unit up for flat response and act as extra or negative gain:

View attachment 287828

Instead of that, we get quite bit of deviation. This will make it hard to interpret what the unit is doing by looking at the controls.

Let's see distortion and noise by operating the unit first in bypass mode:
View attachment 287829

Performance is the same as if I bypassed the unit altogether indicating that the switch simply shorts the input to output. So if you don't need it, you can bypass it more or less completely. I say more or less because crosstalk is impacted:
View attachment 287830

If you enable tone controls, then you take a significant hit in distortion:
View attachment 287831

Noise performance is very good:View attachment 287834

The internal buffer seems to start to saturate at just 0.5 volt:
View attachment 287832

I was disappointed to see fairly steep increase in distortion with frequencies above 500 Hz:
View attachment 287833

Conclusions
If I were to summarize the performance of Mani+ it would be "it could be worse!" Analog equalizers can be quite noisy which I find unbearable. Here, Mani+ is pretty quiet. On the other hand, it throws away fair bit of performance which is hard to accept in absolute, i.e. regardless of cost. But then again maybe it is OK for the price. While I did not try to operate it, I suspect it would be frustrating to make sense out of what the middle controls do. Lack of memory means adjusting it for different types of music, speakers will be hard.

Anyway, I don't have a strong feeling one way or the other for Schiit Loki Mani+ so won't put it on my recommended list.

----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Mani?
 

PeteL

Major Contributor
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Messages
3,303
Likes
3,838
That Graph is confusing. Not sure how to read this. couldn't it be displayed more clearly? like, C4, OK a low Q bell filter centered at roughly 7k is not at the same time shelving down -3 dB in the out of band lows unless something really strange is going on.Then what does a cut do, like 9 o'clock. Is there a Pre attenuation on everything to prevent clipping? Can using the wrong Power supply screw it up? Is it possible to do that one by one showing us Each filter at 0, at max boost and at max cut, to be able to see what it does, the range in dB of each filter, and if really they are that offset from one another and if there is such a massive difference in range between all 4. With a 1 amp supply.

1684924710534.png
 
Last edited:

MacCali

Major Contributor
Joined
Dec 21, 2020
Messages
1,122
Likes
539
Hmmm seeing this makes me wonder, how does this thing create such deterioration of the signal when not bypassed.

How are they failing or what is creating a lower sinad?
 

mhardy6647

Grand Contributor
Joined
Dec 12, 2019
Messages
11,217
Likes
24,181
@amirm as has been mentioned this is not a "Mani" phono product but the "Loki Mini+"
Oh. I was wondering about the name.
I actually still wonder about the proliferation of models in Schiit's catalog... but... I'm an old guy, from the era when minimizing the number of SKUs was considered good business practice! ;)

Whoa, that's cool. A 1970s consumer hifi tone control in its own box! :)
 

ROOSKIE

Major Contributor
Joined
Feb 27, 2020
Messages
1,917
Likes
3,396
Location
Minneapolis
Howdy @amirm. According to SCHIIT it should not be flat with all bands cranked as they are not equal in boost/cut. Some are 6db, some 12db
Still weird and hard to adjust on this though.

Specs & Pricing​

Type: Line-level four-band EQ device
Bands and adjustment ranges: 20Hz (±12dB), 400Hz (±6dB), 2kHz (±6 dB), 20kHz (±12dB)

1684934067321.png
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2022
Messages
39
Likes
63
I was surprised at the effect of the middle controls (C2 & C3). They don't do much boosting but actually lower the response more at one end than the other. The extreme ones work as one would imagine more or less.

Would it make more sense to show those values as absolute values instead of relative to 1K for readability? Here's how my Loki Mini looks if i do that:
Loki bands.png


Admittedly, i should have aimed for 100dB as my baseline.
 

alekksander

Active Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
219
Likes
144
Location
NRN PL
despite i can't see a use for it personally, i have to admin i like it…a small handy equalizer. schiit products really grew in my eyes recently, but if only the performance were a lit bit better…
 

peniku8

Senior Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Dec 9, 2020
Messages
362
Likes
716
You can get quite a lot more with a used pro GEQ (for cheaper than this), including better SINAD, as shown by my measurements here:

So if you have the space and you don't need the simplicity of a 4 band EQ, this seems like a great option.
 

DSS

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2021
Messages
44
Likes
36
You can get quite a lot more with a used pro GEQ (for cheaper than this), including better SINAD, as shown by my measurements here:

So if you have the space and you don't need the simplicity of a 4 band EQ, this seems like a great option.
hard to stack on your desk though
 
Top Bottom